Page 52 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

»■] TOR TO SUEZ. 33

sented at daybreak one of the most magnifi­
cent spectacles that can be conceived. While
their summits were clothed with that golden
hue which elevated mountains receive from
the sun before his beams have warmed ob­
jects of less altitude, the lower ranges ap­
peared enveloped in light purple haze, which
shed over them an indescribable brilliancy.
The atmosphere was keen, pure, and invigo­

rating; and the sea, then agitated by a brisk
north-westerly breeze, resembled some broad
and noble stream bounded on either side by
stupendous mountains: but neither forests
nor clustering vegetation gird their sides; no
streamlet or waterfall glistens out from their
frowning surface: they stand in unclothed
and naked majesty.
The road here passes within a few yards of
the sea, at the base of hills composed of yellow
and reddish-coloured sandstone. A continu­
ation of strong north-westerly breezes had

covered their surfaces with a layer of sand to
a considerable height, and many of the ravines
fronting the sea were entirely filled with it.
In other places the wind had worn away the
softer portions of the cliff, and left there large
VOL. II. d